The man with feathers eyed the wagon with desperation and snarled. “Trade? We’ll just take what we want.” He stepped forward, wringing the spear in his thin hands. “You can’t stop us!”

“Yeah,” Marian said, not really afraid of the stick elves now that she’d seen them up close, “you can try. But again, probably gonna burn you all to a fiery death.” She felt kind of sorry for the group. At first, they’d seemed scary. But the longer they’d spoken, the elves now seemed kind of pathetic. It was sad. 

“What if we take your food now,” the leader said, “and just run off with it? Why would we come back or pay you anything?”

“Actually,” Hadiin snapped his fingers with a smile, “even better. I’ll bring another wagonload with me, this time full to the brim with nothing but foodstuffs or whatever you like as well. And we’ll trade for that, too. And if you don’t have coin to pay with, that’s ok. Perhaps you have some fine, elven crafts to offer? Or raw materials, like hides or metal ore?”

“Liar!” the elven bow-woman shouted. Her eyes blazed. “You’ll come back with adventurers and slaughter us all. We’ll not fall for your trap!”

Hadiin sighed. “No, really. I’m being quite honest here. I’m not an adventurer, I’m a merchant. My goal is to make money. To help others along the way, if I can. Killing you all would not be profitable. No matter how much the misguided adventurer’s guild might pay for your ears, it certainly wouldn’t be worth as much as you and I building a healthy, long-term relationship, would it? From the look of you, and I don’t mean to be rude, but you do seem to be in rather desperate straights. You need resources, yes? Food? Supplies? I can help. And if you can provide something in return, we can both be happy with the exchange. Perhaps we can continue to exchange, for months or even years to come. That sounds better than killing, yes?”

The leader hesitated. For a few moments, the only sound was the rain and the wind in the trees branches above. Then lightning and thunder crashed quite close by, startling them back into action.

Feather-hair shouted, “We can’t trust him!”

Others voiced agreement. Though the woman with the bow seemed a touch conflicted. She still had her arrow aimed at Hadiin though. 

Hadiin spoke calmly. “I shall give you the jerky now, without a fight. No one has to get hurt. No one will be left with horrible, disfiguring burns thanks to Marian’s fire spells. Take it and eat it and enjoy. And in one week’s time, I’ll return along this same road. Just Marian and I, no adventurers. And we’ll trade.”

The leader slowly lowered his spear. He eyed Hadiin coldly, but spoke. “We’ll take all the food you have.”

Feather-hair looked ready to tear someone’s head off. “No! We should attack—!”

The leader held his hand up. “We will take the food. And no one risks their life today.”

The other elves grumbled. But most lowered their weapons. Except the bow-woman. She aimed her weapon at Marian while the other elves came around to the back of the wagon to fetch the food. 

Marian, for her part, kept her gaze on the bow woman, spell at the ready. 

After a few minutes, arms loaded with all the deer jerky they could carry, the elves backed away, then started streaming into the dark forest. Feather-hair glared at them with murderous eyes before he vanished into the shadows. 

The leader threw a suspicious look Marian and Hadiin. “We make no promises. Perhaps next time we’ll show up with more warriors and take it all. Be grateful we’ve left you with your lives.”

OK, Marian had had enough of the lame posturing. She sent fire over his head, forcing him to duck or be scorched. “Be grateful for our generosity and offer of friendship, idiot. And that I didn’t torch you.”

The leader glared at her, then silently strode off. 

After they were all gone, Hadiin sat down in his seat. He exhaled a big breath. “Well, that was interesting.” Despite his earlier confidence, he seemed a bit shaken. Then he brightened. “Look at that. A whole new revenue stream just fell into our laps.” He grinned at her. “Lucky!” Then he turned back and gathered up the reins. 

Marian sat back in the now less-full wagon. She couldn’t be sure, but she suspected that the encounter with the elves wasn’t supposed to go like this. Either you were supposed to kill the elves, or run and escape from them. But talking to them, and even setting up a future trade deal? That didn’t seem like it would have been written into the game. Or maybe it was, but it was just a rare option. After all, hardly anyone played non-fighter classes, right? 

She looked at Hadiin’s scrawny back, appraising him. Perhaps he’d been able to talk to them because of his maxed-out Charisma. Maybe there was more to it than just higher quest rewards. If he could stop hostile people from attacking like that and even turn them to his own will… That was powerful stuff indeed. 

And power turned her on. Along with money. 

She’d only intended to stick around with him a short while to see if she could get some easy coin out of hanging around with him and doing some quests together. It’s not as if he was very attractive, perhaps average at best. She was unsure of whether she liked that curly moustache or not. And he didn’t seem overly brave or cool. He was no death knight in bloody armor or sexy rogue, someone with a badass body and physical power. 

But he might have a different kind of power. And he just might end up making a lot of money. And that was very sexy, too. Maybe she wouldn’t ditch him after reaching the next town and getting paid. Maybe she’d stick with him a while longer. See how things played out.

“Hey, Hadiin,” she called to him.

He looked over his shoulder. “Hmm?”

“What’s your end game?”

“End game?”

“Yeah. Like, what are you going to accomplish as a merchant? What are your goals?”

“Ah, easy enough. I’m going to make a truly stupid amount of money.” He grinned. “And then I’m going to buy the crown.”

That floored her. She blinked and then leaned forward. “The crown?”

“Yes. I’m going to do something nobody else has ever done. Because it probably can’t be done as a damage class. But I’m a merchant and I can do things that others can’t. I’m going to become king. Well, first I’ll have to buy myself noble titles. Work my way up the more money I make.”

“King.” She slumped back. It was crazy. Silly. Impossible. And yet, he seemed so sure of it when he spoke of such a lofty dream. As if it was only a matter of time before he did it. How could he be so sure of himself?

She looked back the way they’d come, at the spot they’d met the elves and thought about how he’d turned that encounter into something unexpected. She raised her brows. Could he actually become a king here? Was such a thing possible?

Maybe, for a merchant, for him, it would be. 

A greedy smile spread over her lips and a telling tingle appeared in her nether regions. She pictured herself in a crown by his side, a princess or a queen, bathing in gold coins and champagne. She would have servants or slaves. She’d pick what she wanted from a feast for every meal. And other women were claw their own eyes out in envy. 

Marian would be a true dragon, surrounded by treasure. 

Yes, she’d stick around for a while. See just what this guy could do. If she could get filthy rich by being in his party, richer than she could from crawling around in dirty dungeons for treasure…

They exited the forest and once more the wind came down on them. Marian closed the walls of the wagon and huddled in the shelter while Hadiin sat outside in the downpour alone. 

Leaning against a relatively soft stack of leather, she was just about to nod off when she heard snapping, growling, snarling, and then a roar from somewhere outside. 

Monster attack!